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Kinetic Weapons Remain a Priority as Cyber War Rages

February 15, 2019
By George I. Seffers
Leaders for all three maritime services—the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard—participate in a town hall forum at West 2019. Photo by Michael Carpenter

The maritime services continue to maintain a balance between cyber and kinetic weapons even while engaged in a daily cyber conflict.

Leaders for all three maritime services—the Navy, Marines and Coast Guard—participated in a town hall forum during the AFCEA-USNI West 2019 Conference in San Diego, and they agreed that cyber conflict rages on.

“If you’re asking me if I think we’re at war, I think I’d say yes,” Gen. Robert Neller, USMC, Marine Corps commandant, told one audience member. “We’re at war right now in cyberspace. We’ve been at war for maybe a decade. They’re pouring oil over the castle walls every day.”

Ushering in a Maritime Century

February 13, 2019
By George I.Seffers
Adm. John Richardson, USN, chief of naval operations, speaks to the West 2019 audience via videoconference.

Adm. John Richardson, USN, chief of naval operations, theorizes that the decades to come could require a greater emphasis on maritime operations because of multiple factors, including global climate change, increased maritime traffic and the rise of megacities near coastal areas

The Navy Turns a Sharper Eye Toward Information Warfare

February 1, 2019
By Robert K. Ackerman
Two U.S. Navy sailors monitor data onboard the USS Jason Dunham during a 6th Fleet area operation. The Naval Information Forces command is consolidating information warfare activities and training to standardize all aspects of the domain across the Navy. U.S. Navy photo

The U.S. Navy is consolidating its information warfare efforts to ensure effective operations across the breadth of the fleet and its ashore assets. This endeavor ties together training, doctrine and equipping as new threats and technologies rapidly change the nature of the information operations realm.

Bringing Information Technology to the Coast Guard

February 1, 2019
By Kimberly Underwood
The Coast Guard faces bandwidth challenges, and the service is looking at how to optimize applications on smaller ships.

The U.S. Coast Guard is pursuing digital solutions to support its unique set of military, law enforcement, humanitarian, regulatory and diplomatic responsibilities. It is no small feat to provide information technology to its workforce of 87,570, as well as to its cutters, boats, and aircraft that move along the coastline and inland waterways protecting the United States.

Navy Information Warfare Research Speeds Along

February 1, 2019
By George I. Seffers
The USS Detroit (LCS 7) conducts acceptance trials, the last significant milestone before delivery to the Navy, in 2016. The Information Warfare Research Project was inspired in part by the National Shipbuilding Research Program initiated in 1971.

Months after initiating a project to research and rapidly field information warfare-related technologies, the U.S. Navy has expanded the effort servicewide and expects to field the first system by the end of fiscal year 2019.

The Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) Systems Center Atlantic announced last summer the formation of an industry consortium for the Information Warfare Research Project (IWRP). The intent is to leverage the flexible contracting platform known as other transaction authority (OTA) to rapidly develop and deploy technologies.

U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency Awards Search and Rescue Contract

March 3, 2017
 

Orolia, through its McMurdo brand, was awarded a contract by the U.K. Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) for nationwide enhancements to search and rescue satellite technology. Enhancements will enable the MCA to operate with the new Medium-altitude Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) satellites being deployed now.

U.S. Coast Guard Awards Navigation System Contract

January 27, 2017
 

The Coast Guard's Command, Control and Communications Engineering Center (C3CEN) awarded a contract to FLIR Maritime U.S. Inc., of Nashua, New Hampshire, on Wednesday for the Scalable Integrated Navigation System, Two (SINS-2). The single award firm fixed price indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract is valued at $50 million and consists of a five-year base with a five-year option. The total period of performance is 10 years.

 SINS-2 is a suite of commercially available electronic equipment and sensors consisting of low-power radar/chart plotter, multifunction displays, single-frequency Global Positioning System and other required navigation components.

Metron to Develop Maritime Counter-ISR Planning System

November 4, 2016
 

Metron Inc.,* Reston, Virginia, is being awarded a $7,167,816 performance based, cost-plus-fixed-fee completion contract for the development of a maritime counter-intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C-ISR) planning system designed to defeat adversary ISR networks through optimal planning of coordinated friendly force movement emissions control, and denial and deception operations. The contract includes an 18-month base period which includes three optional taskings, and one 12-month option period that includes three optional taskings. The option period and taskings, if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of this contract to an estimated $12,825,833. Work will be performed in Reston, V

Sweeping Acquisition Changes on Horizon for NATO Agency Reshaping How it Buys Software

June 30, 2016
By Sandra Jontz

 

Sweeping changes are on the horizon for one NATO agency as it reshapes its software acquisition processes and embarks on a task to create what officials call an in-house “software factory.”

The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency wants to overhaul the way it buys software after inspections revealed acute shortcomings that led to several program cost overruns and delays, says Paul Howland, chief of command and control services for NCI Agency, which serves as NATO’s information technology and command, control, communications and computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) provider, including cyber and missile defense.

Navy to Showcase MRTS Submarine Training System at West 2016

February 9, 2016
By Sandra Jontz
Technicians test systems in the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Atlantic's Common Submarine Radio Room (CSRR) production area. The curved design of the facility mimics the hull designs of four Navy submarine types, which allows for streamlined integration before systems are installed aboard the subs, and reduces cost and installation time.

Non-submariners can get a rare sneak peek into the bowels of a submarine’s control centers during the upcoming sea services conference in San Diego next week. Well, sort of. It’s not a peek into an actual boat's radio control room, for example, but an opportunity to see and touch equipment that simulates a variety of shipboard systems.

Next-Gen Satellite to Deliver High-Speed Mobile Wideband

July 2, 2015
By Sandra Jontz

The mobile craze and the shift to constant connectivity—even if it means paying steep prices for slow Internet speeds—have paid off for both airlines offering onboard Wi-Fi hot spots and satellite communications providers.

Northrop to Support Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration

August 24, 2011
By George Seffers

Northrop Grumman Corporation, San Diego, California, is being awarded a more than $35 million contract modification for operations and maintenance services in support of U.S. Navy Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

Information Sharing Bridges Maritime Gap

February 11, 2011
By Rachel Eisenhower

As criminals turn to clandestine methods of entry into the United States, leaders in the maritime domain are working overtime to minimize threats by increasing data-sharing capabilities. And the effort to detect and deter these threats requires coordination between combatant commands, the services and the Defense Department's intelligence agencies.

In this month's issue of SIGNAL Magazine, Executive Editor Maryann Lawlor discusses these increasing requirements in her article, "Agency Stands Watch Over Seas."

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